A review by likecymbeline
She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard

2.0

 There's an Ezra Koenig tweet I think of a lot:

I once received a text asking if I'd ever read Swann's Way. I went to the library, read it in one painful sitting & texted back "ya why?"

I made one reference in something I wrote to 'She/She Who Must Be Obeyed' -- a reference that I knew from the context and summary was entirely apt, not to mention a totally in-passing and not significant moment, but here I am reading an entire novel just to back up my work and not be uncovered as a phony or fake lit buff. Or something.

As an adventure book, this doesn't have the style and panache that I prefer, and it exemplifies all the worst parts of Victorian imperialism. The sheer amount of racism (which manages to squeeze in some antisemitism and even a dig at the Irish, when it's not too busy dehumanizing Africans) was expected and made the first section of the book especially hard to read, and I didn't know if I'd be able to finish. The sheer fear and hatred of women was also obvious and abundant, but the character of She, Assha, was also downright fascinating. The story moved when we were in her presence and in the caves. As we arrived at pits of skeletons and strange rituals for the dead, I was curiously compelled. The scenes inside the volcano were cinematic in scope: I could see the 90s/00s "Lost World" genre of movies playing out, down to the comic relief character and the one hot chick on the team.

I also detected a surprising amount of Tolkien influences, and looked up after to see that it had indeed been an inspiration for scenes and story beats for his work. I can't say that I enjoyed this book, but I have had it on my periphery for a long time and hey. Now I can back up that reference. So that's a win. Surely?